Posts Tagged ‘tom brady’

Gronk To Tampa with Brady Tampa can Set it and Forget it

Posted: April 22, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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I was driving home today from work and couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this:

The Patriots agreed to trade retired tight end Rob Gronkowski and a 2020 seventh-round pick (No. 241 overall) to Tampa Bay for a 2020 fourth-round pick (No. 139 overall) Tuesday, sources told the Herald. The Pats are sending Gronkowski’s rights to the Bucs, who will soon reinstate him as a member of their team. The future Hall of Famer retired last spring after nine NFL seasons that thrust him into the conversation of greatest tight end to ever play.

To say this is a game changer is the understatement of the year.

Tampa was already heading for a playoff birth with Brady surrounded by a plethora of good targets to throw to. Add to that the greatest tight end who ever played the game and who has played with Brady his entire career, a man who draws double coverage on every play and you can just hand Tampa that NFC trophy and forget it.

Not only are you getting Gronk but you are getting a fully healed and rested Gronk which makes him even more dangerour, and not only are you getting a fully rested and healed Gronk, you are getting a highly motivated Gronk. This is disaster for every team in that divsion and a Godsend for every receiver on that team because as long as Gronk is on the field not a single Tampa Bay wide receiver will be double covered this season, PERIOD!

Now in fairness this is football and any player including Brady and the oft injured Gronk is one play away from being out for the year, but if neither of them goes down then you might as well hand that 1st round bye to Tampa Bay because the road to the superbowl is going through them.

Now I just have to find out if any local radio station will be carrying their games because if the choice between watching Brady and Gronk and watching the Patriots is frankly no choice at all.

The Patriots Post Tom Brady Expectations Game

Posted: March 19, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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The Tom Brady Era in New England has ended.

Although it was not known at the time the coming of Tom Brady to the New England Patriots was a sports earthquake, much like the coming of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in Baseball or Bill Russell to the Celtics in Basketball or Wayne Gretzky to Edmonton in Hockey.

In all of these cases it was quickly established that the coming of said superstar meant that the franchise in question was now considered the prohibitive favorite to win the championship in their sport.

And with the exception of the Yankees who amazingly thanks to the coming of Lou Gehrig during the Ruth Era and Joe DiMaggio during the Gehrig Era and Mickey Mantle & Yogi Berra during the DiMaggio era in succession kept those high exceptions post Ruth the departure of Brady means a re-evaluation of the expectation for both the Patriots and for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Let’s start with the New England Patriots.

The New England Patriots began playing in 1960 and played with a quarterback other than Tom Brady starting games from that year though the year 2000. They played a 14 game schedule from 1960-1976 and a 16 game schedule since. The Patriots had a winning record in 22 out of those 41 seasons. Of those 22 winning seasons the teams best pre Brady Years in terms of wins were as follows

  • 1964 10-3-1
  • 1976 11-3
  • 1978 11-5
  • 1985 11-5
  • 1986 11-5
  • 1996 11-5

During that period these were the years that they won their division

1963, 1978, 1986, 1996, 1997

During that period these are the years they made the playoffs

1963, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998

Of those playoff years these are the years they won at least one playoff game

1963, 1985,1996,1997

During that period these were the years they made it to the Superbowl or the AFL Championship game pre-superbowl

1963, 1985, 1996

They never won a championship

So as you can see over 41 years the aNew England / Boston Patriots

  • Had a winning record 55% of the time
  • won 11 or more game (10 in a 14 game season) 14.6% of the time
  • won their division 12% of the time
  • made the playoffs 24% of the time
  • won a playoff game 9.7% of the time
  • went to a championship game 7% of the time winning 0%

Tom Brady took over as the Patriots starting QB during the 2001 season and remained the starting QB through the 2019 season. During that 20 year period these are the season where they did NOT win at least 12 games

  • 2001 11-5 (partial Brady Season)
  • 2002 9-7
  • 2005 10-6
  • 2008 11-5 (Brady injured game 1 out for season)
  • 2009 10-6
  • 2018 11-5

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots did NOT win their division or make the playoffs

2002, 2008

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots dd NOT win a playoff game

2002,2008,2009,2010, 2019

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots did NOT go to the Superbowl

2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010,2012,2013, 2015, 2019

So lets sum up during the Tom Brady Years

  • Had a winning record 100% of the time
  • The Patriots won at least 12 games 70% of the time
  • The Patriots won their division & made the playoffs 90% of the time
  • The Patriots won at LEAST one playoff game 70% of the time
  • The Patriots went to the Superbowl 50% of the time
  • The Patriots WON the superbowl 30% of the time (67% of the times they went)

Or to put it another way, the best New England/Boston Patriots seasons in their pre-Brady years would be considered failures during the Brady years and their three appearances in the Superbowl/Championship would all be rated at best disappointments in the Brady era.

Now the Tom Brady Era has officially ended which means that unless Jarrett Stidham or any quarterback that they draft this season turns into the 2nd coming of Lou Gehrig logically our expectations for Patriots should return to a pre-Brady level to wit.

Any year that the New England Patriots post Brady:

  • Have a winning record: should be considered OK
  • Win 11 games: should be considered a success
  • Win their division: should be considered a big success
  • Make the playoffs: should considered a huge success.
  • Win a playoff game: should be considered an spectacular success
  • Go to the Superbowl: should be considered an extraordinary success
  • Win a Superbowl: should be considered a Miracle

Now there are those who consider that a fair amount of Tom Brady’s success in general and the Patriots success in particular should be given to Coach Bill Belichick who some consider the greatest coach in Football history. For those of you who consider this the case let’s make a slight adjustment.

Any year the New England Patriots Under Belichick post Brady

  • Win a Superbowl, it’s an extraordinary success
  • Go to the Superbowl it’s a spectacular success
  • Win a playoff game it’s a Huge success
  • Make the playoffs, it’s a big success
  • Win their division, it’s a success
  • Win at least 11 games, it’s an OK season
  • Win less than 11 games…fire the bum!

These are reasonable expectations. I suspect that Patriots fans after two decades of winning will not be as generous as me with their expectations.

Two Brady Possibilities one more Time

Posted: March 11, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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The official start to the free agent season in the NFL is my wife’s birthday and it can’t come soon enough for me because the All Brady all the time on Boston Sports talk radio has reach Bloomberg Ad level status

This comes at a time when the Bruins are ruling the NHL the Celtics have taken a sad (but newsworthy turn) and the Red Sox rotation has reached a point where the best way to describe this season’s potential is to paraphrase Sgt Mulcahy from the Classic John Wayne movie Ft. Apachie when he was asked to judge some rotgut wiskey that was being smuggled to the Indians. Well sir, it’s better than no baseball at all.

All these developments are newsworthy and talk worthy but it’s Brady Brady Brady to the point where one thinks this is his way to soften the blow when he leaves since we’ll all be saying thank God THAT’S over.

But for those of you still wondering on this subject let’s make a few points

  1. While everybody has been saying how Brady wants to play three more years people are forgetting that Bill Belichick also doesn’t have a lot of years left coaching presuming that he was serious about not wanting to coach deep into his 70’s. Brady might have three seasons left in him but Bill likely has no more than five and may only need four to pass Don Shula on the all time list
  2. Belichick knows the road to the Superbowl leads through Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes. No matter how you crunch the numbers there is no available Quarterback more likely to beat Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game in KC than the one guy who did it just two years ago: Tom Brady
  3. Tom Brady is very rich, his wife is very rich and he will remain very rich if it retired tomorrow. The idea that 3-5 million is going to make a huge difference in what he decides to do at this point is simply silly.
  4. Tom Brady’s wife has been wanting him to retire for years. (I suspect his absence from non-mandatory sessions was part of a compromise with her to keep playing.) He is not going to go anywhere that doesn’t have an airtight offensive line.
  5. Please stop pretending it’s a crisis because Brady hasn’t signed before Free Agency. It is seven days to free agency, Tom Brady has never been a free agent. After waiting all this time do you really think he’s going to wait till one or two days before free agency beings and THEN sign with the Pats. That’s simply absurd. He is going to see what the offers are 1st.
  6. Tom Brady not only has nothing to prove, but is apparently STILL pissed off at being passed up till the 6th round by every team out there. I would not be surprised if he pulled a Rocky Marciano on the guys who offered him back money to come back and let those teams offer him big bucks and then sign with the Pats saying: “Hey if you really wanted me you should have drafted me when you had the chance”.
  7. There is only one wildcard in this entire process. Does Brady want to challenge himself by trying to win a Superbowl elsewhere?

All these things are possibilities, but you know what the most important truth is? Just this:

We don’t know what’s going to happen and we won’t know until it happens.

So let’s all chill.

What if Brady Goes Somewhere & DOESN’T bring a Super Bowl?

Posted: February 16, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
Tags: ,

In all the “Brady to Dallas” , “Brady to LA”, “Brady to Tennessee” stuff I’ve been hearing for several months now there are a lot of factors that we hear about.

  • Do they have a solid line to protect him?
  • Do they have the offensive weapons?
  • Do they have a 2-3 year QB opening (which is all he’ll play)
  • Will they commit to the contract he wants?

All of these will be factors in the decision making process for teams and Brady but there is one factor that nobody is talking about that I suspect even Tom Brady hasn’t thought of, but should.

What happens if he goes someplace and doesn’t bring a ring or at least a Superbowl appearance?

Tom Brady has been a fixture for the Pats for 20 years. He took a team that had been to 2 Superbowls in 35 years, losing both and took them to NINE superbowls in the next twenty years winning SIX.

That being the case if Tom Brady stays in New England till he is 45 and never makes another Superbowl, while sports writers might grumble and Sports Radio might buzz, fans will still love him and when he does retire give him a send off that will be almost as memorable as his playing days.

If he leaves however everything is different.

Any franchise that signs Brady is one that feels it is near the brass ring right now and figures that it is that one piece away from going all the way, which is why they will be paying $25-$40 Million for a 42 year old QB who happens to be not only the best player of all time, the most prolific when it comes to Superbowl appearances of all time but the best clutch performer of all time in the history of the game.

Once having made that commitment, a playoff appearance won’t do, a 1st round bye with a win won’t do. Anything less than a conference championship will be considered a failure and even that if it comes with a Superbowl loss with not be enough.

And the fans who support said franchise who do not have a history with Tom Brady will not blame their line, or their coach, or their receivers or defense if this happens, they will blame HIM because he was brought in and given the key to the vault to make it happen.

Oddly enough this might actually be an incentive to Tom Brady, the ultimate competitor, who wants to win more than anyone else on the field. He’s the type that actually might want all of that on his shoulders and revel in the chance to take some lesser teams flag and charge up the hill. Perhaps he feels he needs a fanbase that will challenge him rather than one that has reached a point of unconditional love.

But my advice to Brady is this. Make damn sure that this is what you want before you leave a fanbase that loves you an owner that will cater to you and a coach and staff that knows you better than any other and is in the best position to help you continue to be a winner in the twilight of your career.

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